Blood of the Covenant
by JohnTitor
Summary: The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. Anthology. AU: Set before the Witcher Saga books, but after the short stories.
1. Chapter 1

Geralt was travelling on a mare, this one white, but still named Roach. It had been a few weeks since his last contract and his fingers were getting restless. Approaching a small village he noticed a board with some papers hanging on.

 _I guess it wouldn't hurt to look for a job, waiting for one hasn't helped._

He hopped off his horse and looked over the signs. To his surprise, this village was elven, and the signs were in elder speech. Although not fluent, he was able to read most of it. The words **warning** and **monster** were obvious. Taking the sign from the board he walked towards the biggest hut he could see, expecting it to belong to someone of importance.

An elf came out, a bit taller than him, which wasn't surprising. "Ah a witcher. Hadn't seen one of your kind in decades. Almost thought you really had all gone extinct."

Geralt shrugged. This wasn't the worst reception he had gotten, but it still wasn't pleasant. "This monster problem you have, is there a reward for it?"

"Ahh yes, that." The elf looked at the paper, "Well no, not really. Sorry witcher, no coin to be made here."

Geralt sighed. "Why not? Aren't you worried you'll get attacked."

"The witcher has a heart?" The elf laughed, "but to answer your question, no we're not. This is simply a warming because in the fields there has been a monster that attacks merchants. We don't wander into the fields so it doesn't seem to attack us."

Geralt looked towards where he came, looks like he wouldn't be making any money here. He turned around and left.

Hopping back on his horse, he wandered a bit till he saw a carriage not too far from the village, but of course it was broken down. He got closer to investigate.

"The side of carriage has been tipped over." He poked his head inside and saw a dead merchant. His head clean off. "This is no monster, but then why is there a warning in the village?"

He used his witcher senses to see if there was anything else, and found boot prints, large than his own. "Must be a big fellow. With that size, it's no surprise that it could chop off the merchant's head so easily."

He whistled for Roach to come and mounted her to ride off. His senses active, he could see the prints. They were fresh so he wasn't too far behind. He neared a mountain, where the prints ended abruptly. His medallion started vibrating, and thus he used his senses. He could hear water flowing through the inside of the mountain. It was a strong spell, but it had been affected already. He used sign of Aard to push anything that were to be in front of the spell and ran through it. He was allowed through, but the image stayed. _Interesting_. He kept walking, and found the source of water. It was a bridge, and under ran a river. He tried remembering this landmark, but couldn't quite put a finger on it. Crossing he came to a small village where he saw children all running around.

"Look another stranger!" one of the boys screamed and everyone turned to see him.

He looked at them and saw small child elves, all wearing green tunics. "What's going on here?" The " _another_ " implied that someone else had been here.

One of the child elves stepped up to him, green hair, with a male child staying close behind her. "You have twin swords… does that mean you're a witcher?" The young elf stared right in his yellow eyes, no fear.

"Yes, you are correct. I saw traces of someone being attacked, and decided to investigate." Geralt was slightly confused, but decided that this elf, was not as young as he thought. "Do you have any information?"

"Yes! We're in desperate need of your help sir."

"I'm not a knight, but tell me what happened."

The elf then told him, "One of us found an elven woman, and she was injured, we decided to help her, but after bringing her in, we were attacked by a monster!"

"This monster, do you have any details?"

"Yes, it was a dark knight, decked in black armor, with only a halberd as his weapon. He stomped in here and followed after the woman!"

Geralt tried to think of a monster like this, but couldn't. _Might_ _not be that kind of monster_ … "Well point the way, and maybe I can help."

"Thank you master witcher. I know you don't work for free, and the woman is our responsibility, but we have no money to pay you in." He thought as much, but didn't feel like charging them to begin with. This job felt odd, and he knew he had to take it. "However, you can take what you find at the temple. I'm sure there'll be something for you."

 _Potions? Exlixirs maybe?_ "Thank you. I'll be on my way now."

He ran towards the entrance of some woods. This all felt surreal to him. He'd never seen this mountain, and now there were woods, rivers and even a village inside. _Well they're children so I can see why they're in hiding, but whoever did the spell must be fairly powerful_. A huge mountain pops up and no one mentions anything, powerful indeed. _But whoever broke that spell must be powerful too._ He came to crossroads and decided to go left; however, just when he was about to take a third step his medallion vibrated radically. In mid air, with his witcher practice, he stopped. He took a step backwards, multiple times until he was at the crossroads again and walked to the right. This time no vibrations occurred and he picked up the pace. _Hopefully that was enough to slow down that monster._ He pulled out his silver sword, and ran with it out, not wanting to be caught by surprise. This wasn't a pub where he could afford that second delay. He could feel it, something was amiss.

Finally he reached what he thought to be the temple. He could see a tree had been chopped down to build a sort of walkway for the entrance; however, it had been done recently. He picked up the pace and ran up to the entrance. He pulled out two elixirs, one for his cat eyes, and green one for better strength. He could feel them taking effect right away, and looked into the building like if it were day. He knew the village people were not children, they couldn't be, but that didn't stop him from feeling despair at the two bodies that laid on the floor. He went further in to see the monster. Truly, in front of him was a knight, over six feet tall, decked in black armor, with his halberd trying to break down a door.

"Well aren't you ugly." The witcher ran straight at him and sliced straight down its spine.

The monster grunted but didn't die. _Obviously not human_. Instead the halberd came in a circle at Geralt. He jumped back, just barely dodging it, but now the weapon, after completing the spin was coming back downwards at an even faster rate. Barely dodging forward, the withcer stabbed his sword into the crevice of the neck. A sure kill in most cases, the monster grunted again and simply turned to look at him. The helmet it wore, was black, but there was a hole for the eyes, but no eyes stared back. Geralt jumped back. Was _that a skeleton? Or a mistake?_ No, with his potion and the eyes of a cat, he made no mistakes, he was fighting an armored skeleton. In his confusion though, the halberd was coming up, not as powerful as a downward strike, but the strength of this monster was enough to throw Geralt against a wall. Planting his sword in the ground to stand up, he casted Quenn to protect him. He ran again one more time, and the halberd was waiting for him. Protecting the monster from Geralt's inner strikes. He used his sword as a parry to try to break in, but when he tried, even with Quenn active, he was thrown across the temple again. He stood up and circled the monster, the halberd coming in a circle, this time Geralt jumped over the back swing and slashed down. Again the monster grunted. This is it! From behind Geralt used Aard to push the monster forward, already arhcing his back from the attack, he fell. Quickly he walked up and stabbed downwards multiple times on the monsters neck.

He backed up, and waited. That was the end of the monster.

He walked up to the door, hanging by the hinges, and knocked. There was no answer. He leaned against it and used his witcher senses, but could only hear sobbing. "Open up please, the monster is dead."

Still, there was no reply.

He used the sign of Aard, for the third time that day and pushed the door clear of its hinges. Inside, he found the woman, sitting against the wall facing the door. He walked up to her, but found her dead, in her arms a babe elf crying.


	2. Chapter 2

Inside the walls of Khaer Morhen sat two witchers. It was late in the night; colder than usual.

"Do you believe in fate?" Vesemir stood up and walked over to the shelf and started looking around. "I don't know anymore Vesemir. I'm tired, but I can't stop. I'm drinking more, and whoring even worse."

Vesemir came back with an old bottle of alcohol. "That's just part of your mutations Geralt."

"I'm not an animal Vesemir." He looks at his father figure, "I'm not."

"Aye, that's true." He pops the bottle open. "This was a gift from a dwarf many decades ago. Didn't know when I would open it, but this seems like the perfect time." He poured two glasses full. "Drink it Geralt."

"I'm trying to cut back."

"You're no milk drinker Geralt, now drink it and let's talk." The man in front of him was old. Older than Kaer Morhen, perhaps. He was one of the few that made him feel small. _Him and_ _ **her**_. He grabbed the cup and took a shot. "So this is about _her_." Vesemir sipped his instead.

"No." Too quick. "Maybe."

"You two are like the sun and moon. Shine brightly in your own regard, collide together once every few years, but it never lasts."

That was one way of describing his relationship with Yennefer of Vengerberg. The on and off relationship these two shared was the source of many ballads composed by Dandelion. However, his ballads were always embelished, always leaving the readers thinking there was hope. They got dramatic, but never dark. The things he did, the things she said, they weren't pretty. An eclipse was nice, but you don't stare at it for long and likewise, it doesn't stay for long. Now he wondered if they were bounded by fate as well, or if he forced it. "Well you're not wrong."

The man stood up and walked over to the witcher and stretched his hand out. It stayed hoovering over him before finally patting him on the back. He had seen this man in battle. Geralt of Rivia was feared in many cities, thought as one of the greatest swordsman, easily one of the best witchers he had raised, and he always expected him to die fighting some monster in a cave or a demon in a castle. When he heard from sources that Geralt had been assaulted in Aedd Gynvael and was almost killed by a band of thugs, he knew things had gone too far. "Is that why you brought them?"

"No." With two children with him... he could finally give Yennefer that which she always wanted. She had been searching for a cure, a way to remedy her curse, but Geralt knew that even if she could, he was sterile himself. However, telling her that he now had two children and if she would raise them with him, that would be using those two children for his own gain. It would end in yelling and fighting, like it always did. These two children were his responsibility, his destiny.

"Are you sure Geralt? We're not an orphanage, and this is hardly the place for children."

"It once was."

"Is that what you want Geralt?"

He looked up at his mentor. "It can't be done."

"Is that why you brought them then? Knowing they can't be, you brought them here."

"No… I don't know…" He gripped the cup harder. "Was I wrong to bring them here? They're my responsibility... Taking them to a school, even if it's one of the best, feels like passing that responsibility off. Especially giving them away." _to her._

"No... This is your home Geralt. Bringing them home wasn't the wrong choice."

"But we don't know anything about raising kids."

The older man laughed, "We raised you."

"You raised a witcher."

"Well we can raise them to defend themselves. This world, this war, it's not safe. At least they'll live."

Geralt poured more of the alcohol into his cup. "Do you think that's the right choice?"

"Like it or not Geralt, you're responsible for them," said man was about to speak and raised his hand to gesture, "No! Let me finish." Geralt put down his hand, "They're your wards, your responsibilities, fuck it, they're your kids. And you will make mistakes. Maybe you'll be too overprotective, or you'll be too lax, but you'll make mistakes Geralt. And their lives are in your hands, but as long as you do your best, no one can blame you. Not me, not Nenneke, not some witch."

He stared at him for a second, one that felt longer. In that second he realized just how wise he was Geralt took another a big gulp of his cup. "Thank you Vesemir."

"So you think it was fate that you met them?" Vesemir sipped more of his cup.

"I think it's something." Geralt wasn't sure what it was that bound him to the children. "When I brought back the baby elf, the village girl smiled at me. She knew I was a witcher, and invoked the law of surprise and I agreed without realizing it."

"Aye, but you returned. You could have left the child in that village, but instead you went back."

"That I did." Geralt finished off his drink. "Maybe there's more to life than monster hunting, maybe I can help these two children. Raise them, and look after them, maybe that's what I've been looking for."


End file.
